Starbucks to sell wine

Who would have thought that the American coffee giant Starbucks would one day fill its cups with wine instead of caffeine? That’s exactly what it has done, though, to increase footfall outside of the traditional coffee breaks.

Starbucks: a thriving chain turns to wine

Starbucks is a fairly prosperous chain. In 2012, it had almost 18,000 outlets worldwide posting turnover of 13.3 billion dollars. Starbucks can serve up to 220 clients an hour and the chain claims to offer a range of nearly 87,000 different coffee brews. The problem, though, is that it sells mostly coffee and despite coffee’s popularity, it is mainly drunk in the morning. Towards the end of the afternoon, everyone knows that drinking coffee can disrupt sleep patterns. So Starbucks came up with an idea: to try its hand at selling wine.

Wine as a way of increasing footfall in Starbucks’ stores late afternoon

Starbucks has already introduced different types of products to its stores, including hot drinks such as tea and an extensive bakery selection with sandwiches, croissants and muffins, to name a few. After selling small amounts of beer, it has now decided to turn to wine, a turning point that marks a sea change in the company’s history. The extent of the change is revealed in the removal of the word coffee from its corporate logo.

The American giant Starbucks’ strategy for introducing wine to its stores

Starbucks has rolled out its wine proposition in just a few regions in the United States and so far the feedback has been quite positive. It intends to pursue the strategy by offering wine in 20% of its US stores and has set a target of 1 billion dollars in extra revenue. It remains to be seen which wines will be offered, what they will be served in and if staff will be trained to provide wine drinkers with advice. One thing’s for sure though: you don’t serve wine like you do coffee!